[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ghosts Season 3, Episode 8, “Holes Are Bad.”]
Ghosts was filled with surprises for fans in the latest episode, “Holes Are Bad,” as the true story behind Hetty’s (Rebecca Wisocky) was revealed in order to save Flower (Sheila Carrasco) from her place at the bottom of Woodstone’s well.
When Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) step away for a romantic weekend together, the ghosts stumble upon their long-lost compadre, Flower who fell into the Woodstone well after chasing a butterfly. It turns out that the ghost who was actually “sucked off” at the end of Season 2 was actually basement ghost Ralph (Tyler Alvarez) who was bunking with attic girl, Stephanie (Odessa A’zion).
With that mystery solved, the question of how to get Flower out of the well was raised. In the world of Ghosts, spirits aren’t able to climb walls, but need ground to walk on. When construction crews come to fill in the well with cement, it leaves Flower with two options. One is to walk out into the dirt in hopes of finding the woodstone basement to prevent getting stuck, and the second is to be pulled up.
Bertrand Calmeau/CBS
Both ventures are risky, and ultimately, time is running out when the ghosts are unable to get Sam and Jay to return or stop the cement from being poured. Not wanting to let Flower go, Hetty reveals that she has what’s needed to save her friend as she rolls down her neckline to reveal a phone cord wrapped around her throat. Flashbacks reveal that Hetty committed suicide as authorities closed in on her and her family’s fortune after Elias (Matt Walsh) disappeared, seeming to evade authorities.
In order to save her son from potential ruin, Hetty decides dying by suicide is her only option. It was a shocking revelation to make, as star Wisocky remarks on the importance of getting things right. “The writers were very generous with wanting to involve me in discussions about the best way to present it and the way that would make the most sense for Hetty and everyone involved took very, very seriously our obligation to treat the topic responsibly with respect and accuracy and intelligence and not just as a plot device.”
In preparation for Hetty’s big reveal, Wisocky adds, “We all spoke with mental health professionals. My biggest concern and request was that we focus on her state of mind at that moment [instead of shame], and what could have possibly led up to her thinking that she had no other way out. And I love the way the conundrums between Hetty and Flower are intertwined in this moment. Flower is at the bottom of a deep dark hole and can’t get out, and she needs her friends.”
Bertrand Calmeau/CBS
The revelation of Hetty’s death by suicide certainly impacts the other ghosts who had been in the dark about her secret until she’s forced to use the cord to pull Flower out of the well. But Wisocky reasons, “Hetty finds the courage to talk about her own deep dark hole because she feels so horrible and deeply troubled at the thought that Flower would be left abandoned and isolated by herself forever. And she finds she has to act. So that was really moving to me.”
Taking the weight of such a storyline very seriously, the actress says, “People have said so often that [Ghosts] started conversations in families about difficult topics that otherwise might not have happened. And I really do hope that this episode prompts someone to reach out and speak about their feelings in a way that they might not have felt ready or able to before. And if we can accomplish that, that would be magnificent,” Wisocky shares.
While Hetty finally spilled this secret, don’t expect her to be sharing anything else this big in the immediate future as Wisocky acknowledges her Gilded Age ghost is a secret keeper.”Will [the secret reveal] have a linear trajectory from this point forward? Probably not. But I think there are a lot of conversations to be had still between Isaac and Hetty about the sexuality of Hetty’s son,” Wisocky notes. “I mean, Hetty kept that a secret when she didn’t need to. So there are a lot of seeds [to unearth].”
As for what’s to come with Flower, fans will have to keep tuning in to find out, but for now, the Hippie spirit is officially back at Woodstone, just in time for the impending nuptials between Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) and Nigel (John Hartman). Let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments section, below, and catch Ghosts on CBS this spring.
Ghosts, Season 3, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS
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